A 3-D preview of a sex film being screened at the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park has been branded inappropriate by officials.

The five-minute promotion for the pornographic 3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is being shown privately to over-18s in an area enclosed by wooden boards and set up by the online forum Hong Kong People Reporter.

Visitors can watch the preview after making purchases at a stall selling inflatable toy breasts at HK$68 and HK$98-mouse pads featuring the breasts of the film's female stars. But officials from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said showing pornography at the fair was inappropriate.

It sent the stall-keepers letters and faxes ordering them to stop showing the preview.

'The fair attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year. Space there is limited and showing the film would attract a big crowd at the stall and affect some shoppers,' the department said in a statement.

The department said it would claim the stall back if necessary.

But just two hours after the stall opened on the first day of the fair yesterday, it had sold HK$10,000 of products related to the film.

And Oi Ming, a keeper at the stall, said they intended to continue showing the film clip.

Oi said customers included people from all walks of life.

'Both guys and girls like our products. A girl bought four mouse pads and said she was going to give them to her friends,' she said.

And she said the inflatable toy breasts had several uses.

'For guys, it could prevent you from bumping into others in the crowded fair. For girls, it could keep you from molestation. For children, it could be a swimming aid,' she joked.

But not all shoppers appreciated the humour. Student Wong Wai-ching, 18, said the products were obscene and it was not appropriate to sell them at the fair as many children would walk by and see them.

Meanwhile, many more stalls sold rabbit-shaped cushions and inflatable toys to welcome the new year.

Although the cost of the products had increased because of inflation and the higher exchange rate of the yuan, many stall-holders said they would not charge shoppers more than last year. Orchid seller Horky Kwok Pak-yat said the cost of the flowers had risen 20 to 30 per cent. He expected to lose money but would not raise prices because 'it's happy time of the year'.

He is selling a new kind of orchid with pointed petals that resemble rabbit ears.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department issued a total of 55 verbal warnings at the fair last night, 52 involving obstruction of public places and three related to the use of speakers.

The department is also prosecuting six people who tried to do business at the fair without authorisation.